General: Desert Poppy (Eschscholzia glyptosperma) is a brightly colored spring wildflower with four large, yellow-orange petals per flower and one flower per flower stalk. The flower is a typical 4-petal poppy flower. Flowers attach to the stalk via a cone-like structure (receptacle obconic) without a spreading rim. The leaves are basal and highly dissected (appearing linear).

Desert Poppy is a fairly common component of the spring wildflower display along washes and on bajadas in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones.

Family: Poppy (Papaveraceae).

Other Names: Desert gold-poppy, golden poppy.

Plant Form: Annual forb; erect with basal leaves and upright flowering stalks.

Height: With flower stems, to about 10-inches tall.

Stems: Flower stem green; receptacle obconic; no spreading rim

Leaves: Basal, highly dissected, appearing linear.

Flowers: Blooms during the spring and early summer. Inflorescence: one flower per stem. Flowers: four yellow petals to about 1-inch long.

Seeds: Fruit: long, narrow, cylindrical capsule (to 2-1/2 inches). Seeds: Small, round, brown.

Habitat: Dry, well-drained sandy and gravelly soils along washes and bajadas into the lower mountains.

Elevation: From near sea level to about 5,000 feet.

Distribution: California across southern Nevada to southwestern Utah and western Arizona.

Comments: This is a common spring wildflower.